If you’re a dog owner, there can be one unpleasant consequence of the arrival of warmer weather: a three-month backlog of dog turds revealed by the melting of backyard snow.

That’s why at this time of year, business for those in pet waste cleanup is picking up.

“This springtime has been a little more intense because we’ve had more snow and the melt was so rapid,” said Gail Behrens-McArdle, owner of Pet Yard Pick-Up, the pioneer in pet waste cleanup in the Twin Cities.

“We’re talking about hundreds of pounds of dog poop in some yards,” she said. “We’ve been pretty knee-deep in the poop this year.”

“Since Saturday, it’s just been going crazy,” said Brian Benson, also known as Dr. Poolittle. Benson said that in three days he got 200 calls and e-mails from potential customers.

“This is sort of the make-or-break time for the whole year,” said Hugh Griffin, owner of the Poop 911 franchise in the Twin Cities. He said he and his crews have been scooping from dawn to dusk, seven days a week.

Behrens-McArdle said she gets some desperate calls.

“Some people get upset when they realize how much poop is out there,” she said.

But recently a lot of entrepreneurs are recognizing that there’s gold buried in those brown hound mounds.

Behrens-McArdle said her company was only the third pet waste pickup businesses in the country when she started it 21 years ago, inspired by picking up after her own dog one spring day.

“Three hours later, I thought: ‘Oh, my God. I bet people would pay to have this done because this is terrible,’ ” she said.

Behrens-McArdle said she endured years of slow growth, but now has a client base of about 200.

She’s also acquired some competitors — including at least four other companies in the past five years.

Neil Stewart, who started Pet Waste Professionals about a year and a half ago, said he thinks the pet waste pickup industry in the Twin Cities still has plenty of room for growth.

He said there are about 30 companies operating in the Chicago area, and one company in the Dallas area has about 4,000 customers.

Stewart estimates that five companies operating in the Twin Cities have a total of 1,000 customers. He said many local pet owners are still unaware that you can hire someone to pick up after your dog.

“Definitely, there’s not the competition there is in other cities,” he said. “It’s almost in its infancy in a way.”

When his employer was contemplating layoffs about a year and a half ago, Hugh Griffin left his 12-year career as an airline pilot to pick up poop.

Compared with other franchises, the startup costs for a pet waste company are modest, Griffin said. And despite the recession, business has been increasing.

“It’s an actual business. You can make real money at it,” he said.

“I’ve grown every year,” said Benson, who started Dr. Poolittle five years ago.

For pet owners, depending on how many dogs you have and which company you pick, costs for a one-time spring cleanup range from about $55 to $150. Regular service can be about $10 to $18 a week.

Griffin said it’s “an affordable luxury.”

Stewart said once pet owners get used to having someone else pick up after their dogs, they would more likely cut back on lawn service than on the poop cleanup.

“Nobody likes to do the job themselves,” he said.

“We make sure every crumb, every morsel or speck is picked up,” Behrens-McArdle said. “You have to be really detail-oriented.”

Benson said during a springtime cleanup last year, he picked up about 35 pairs of underwear that a dog had eaten and eliminated over the course of a winter.

“I enjoy it,” Griffin said. “It’s not as messy as you would think. Honestly.”

Richard Chin can be reached at 651-228-5560.

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